Today Is The Last Day I Am Using Words...

...ok, maybe not. But my point is: wanted to post but don't have tons of energy to do so. I feel fine but me and my wife both have a tenacious cough that won't seem to go away. The incessant coughing and old man style wheezing keeps me up at night (it is 2:30 am now, and I've been up since 1:30am). So lack of sleep over the last 3-4 days is catching up to me. So I wanna blog, but it's gonna be real short handy. Here goes with the quick hits:

* Zach & Wiki rocks much. Love the structure, love the puzzles, love the design. Love how the whole puzzle is right in front of you and- for the most part- how the puzzle environments are these little self contained chunks. On God of War, there was this whole 'oooh, a 'guess what the designer is thinking' puzzle=a bad puzzle!' but this game makes it clear- to me- that sometimes those sorts of puzzles are the best kind! Sort of the puzzle equiv. of a quick time event, where you get to experience a more narrative, one-off scenario, versus being a slave to a handful of key mechanics the game uses over and over. This game kind of reminds me- core play wise- of the classic 16 bitter OUT OF THIS WORLD/ANOTHER WORLD.

* I love my job. I simply love doing my job. It is so much fun and so exciting. I am so lucky I get to do it with the team I get to do it with. What a blast.

* I am reading A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle and it really is changing my life. One of the most amazing books I have ever read.

* Me and my wife went to see Eckhart Tolle speak in San Diego last week. Great content but not the world's most engaging speaker. In some ways this was the point. But still...reading his book is better than seeing him speak, for me.

* Taking the A NEW EARTH online class with Oprah and Eckhart. It rocks. I guess you could say that right now, we are Tolle junkies in my house. His book is one of the three key philosophical books that have really shaped my life over the last few years. The whole list is:

-When Things Fall Apart: Pema Chodron's Buddha/Shambala teachings aimed at a Western audience
- Any LAW OF ATTRACTION BOOK- Abraham/Hicks, The Secret, Think and Grow Rich,etc.
-A New Earth-the Eckhart Tolle book

* I get more and more excited for Indy Jones 4 as the days wear on. Even if what I am starting to suspect is true- that Lucas has had more influence on any movie, let alone a Spielberg movie, than he should- I am still excited. Even if the film is one of the worst Spielberg movies ever made, I don't care. It's Indy, it's summer. I'm so jazzed.

* Tier A Summer Flicks=Iron Man, Indy, Hulk, Speed Racer, Batman, Get Smart
Tier B Summer Flicks (anticipation wise)= WallE, Sex and the City, The Happening, Hancock, Wanted, Hellboy II, The Mumm* y 3

Even if only 1/3 rock, it's gonna be a hell of a summer movie season.


* I had typed a paragraph on game reviews being broken and then erased it. Does the gaming net need ANYMORE blogs/articles/debate on:

-game reviews/state of game journalism?
-games as art debate?
-violence in video games debate/ESRB ratings debate?

I think not. Game mags and web sites should not publish any story dealing with these issues for the next 18 months and see what happens. Will it force the mags/sites to come up with more interesting features? Will it force us to come to the conclusion that games are consumer products and beyond core reviews, there's not much to cover? Who knows...but man, I just can't read another story on those tired old subjects.

* My new movie star girlfriend is the Asian woman from Battlestar Galactica. I don't watch the show (I know I should, but there are only so many hours in a day...I have yet to see an episode of LOST, for crying out loud! Hell, I still have 3 discs to get thru on my first season of THE OC box set and I've had that for 2 years!)....but anyway, oh man, Grace Park- her name- is amazing.

* Kate Beckinsale recently said...well hell, if you know Kate like I know Kate, you KNOW what she said. God bless her!

* I miss the old E3.

* I have a BAFTA! For GOW OF WAR 2 story! I did the least amount of work on the story, compared to my fellow winners Cory and Marianne but hell, I'll take it! How amazing is it to have a damn BAFTA?!? That's pretty sweet and probably as close as I will ever get to an Oscar. How neat!

* Should I go to PAX? Should I go to GenCon? Never been to either.

* Should I go hear Wil Wheaton read from his newest book when he is in San Diego this month? I just re-read the amazing DANCING BAREFOOT in one setting the other night, and I think I will. But what if he's like (cause he's a gamer): 'Jaffe? Screw you man, I hate your games! I ain't signing shit for you!' I'm not really worried about him doing that, but what if he did? That'd be kind of cool, but sad.

Ok, need to go to sleep. Coughing has died down, maybe I will make it this time, thru the rest of the nite.

Goodnite ya'll!

David

ps. tired, sleepy so ain't no typo or spell checking going down here....usually I do a little of that but hell, not tonite....later!